PEKIN — City police were building a case against James Bowman in the manufacture and sale of meth last December when they took advantage of the opportunity he offered.

“We knew there would be heroin in the car” that was bringing Bowman, 27, and three women back from a trip to Peoria, Pekin Public Information Officer Mike Eeten said after the car was stopped and the four were arrested.

Two of them are now in prison. Bowman began a four-year term this week, following his guilty plea and sentencing Friday on a charge of possessing heroin with intent to deliver.

Pamela Crump, 27, who lived with Bowman at 413 St. Julian St., was sentenced in February to a total of six years in prison, including five for possessing heroin to sell.

She also received a year for possessing the drug in an unrelated case and was serving a 30-month probation term for retail theft when the group was arrested Dec. 19.

Bowman had finished a three-year prison term for felony theft only two months before his alleged dealings with methamphetamine put him back under police focus, according to a prosecutor’s court affidavit. Their investigation revealed he and Crump had traveled previously to Peoria to buy heroin, the affidavit stated.

Officers found 46 small packets of heroin, apparently intended for individual sale, in the Dec. 19 car stop. Most of packets were hidden in Crump’s clothes, according to the affidavit.

Sutton, who was driving the car, was accepted into Tazewell County’s Drug Court Program in January after pleading guilty to the charge. Her sentencing has been deferred while she adheres to the program’s strict conditions, which focus on keeping non-violent offenders of drug-driven crimes on the road to addiction recovery rather than incarceration.